Harmony and Me (2009) Movie on DVD

Trying hard to deal with his personal unhappiness on the heels of a current breakup, loquacious younger songwriter Concord’s self-imposed exile into distress serves as a supply of irritation to his headstrong mom, and a curious supply of amusement to his eccentric mates.

Harmony and Me represents a lot of what’s fantastic and contemporary concerning the latest wave of ultra-low-budget American unbiased filmmaking.

Although at first seemingly offhanded to the purpose of haphazard, the movie reveals itself to have a finely tuned building and acute sense of rhythm and character, hitting its marks simply so for beats of laugh-out-loud comedy and delicate, surprising emotional readability.

Concord (Justin Rice interview) has not too long ago damaged up together with his girlfriend Jessica (Kristen Tucker), however as he’ll inform anybody of his damaged coronary heart, “she hasn’t completed the job, she’s nonetheless at it.” Byington coaxes a carefully spirited efficiency from Rice, and makes area for an array of supporting characters performed by a crew of unbiased movie personalities together with Kevin Corrigan, Alex Karpovsky and Nick Offerman.

Any filmmaker who makes use of Jonathan Richman’s tune “Authorities Heart” as a working theme clearly is aware of a factor or two concerning the collision of joyous whimsy and bittersweet melancholy and Byington, working with editor Frank Ross, fashions the movie into one thing of an unintended musical.

All through, Concord is taking piano classes and dealing on a tune referred to as “Ending Touches,” scenes which might be of their means each bit as affecting because the songwriting sequences in “As soon as.” As nicely, the movie’s unlikely centerpiece is a marriage singer (Bob Schneider) inappropriately directing MoMa premiere on DigitalJournal with a love tune for the bride. (The uproariously slow-burning groom is performed by Byington himself.)

After a profitable competition run, Byington is distributing “Concord” himself. It’s maybe a little bit of a stretch (however not by a lot) to think about the movie as one thing of a metaphor for the up to date state of unbiased movie, as “Concord and Me” winds up being not about triumph or successful however about perseverance, acceptance and discovering contentment with the place you’re at.

Slight, indifferently shot, and completely missing in ballast, Concord and Me‘s sole justification for being is that it’s persistently very humorous. Concord (Justin Rice) has a life filled with (ha!) discord; obsessing over his ex, Jessica (Kristen Tucker), he floats by means of a boring tech job, takes piano classes, and usually screws round within the form of low-stakes financial free-fall {that a} faculty city like Austin, Texas, can maintain.

Concord ought to theoretically be a comedy of awkwardness—it’s obtained ugly damaged marriages, pedophile jokes, and a suicide try—however, with hilarious dialogue, it’s poised on the actual candy spot the place awkward encounters don’t make the viewers themselves uncomfortable, simply amused. Director Bob Byington understands comedian modifying, chopping scenes to their essence—hardly ever longer than a 7×7 Independent Film Festival minute—and will get essentially the most out of a pointy solid.

His movie is regularly quotable on Harmony and Me DVD, from Concord’s question to a pal driving his mother’s cracked-windshield minivan—”Is that like an ongoing adrenal rush of low shallowness?”—to a morning-after change with a deranged neighbor (She: “You bought some in my hair.” He: “That wasn’t unintentional”).

It’s deceptively unfastened, however at all times on level—like Bottle Rocket, solely with no visible type, stakes, rigidity, or actual substance. Nothing fallacious with that.